eduMusings

Twitter’s a great tool to connect with other educators & researchers, and to keep up with the latest news in your areas of interest and teaching.

People sometimes look at me strangely when I suggest it. You post messages saying what you’re doing right now: that might not rock your socks. But as with any conversation, you just have to find the right people …

Imagine that one day you come across a whole lot of people, milling around in groups, chatting. They’re talking to people with similar interests – project management, say, or civil engineering, or knitting. And they’re sharing whatever interests them – social news, if it’s that kind of group, or the latest research, or technologies. You don’t have to stay very long – most people wander in for a while, then go away again, and wander back later.

The groups aren’t fixed at all – most people are listening in to different sorts of people: they might be part of a big group of educators, for example, but also following a few people who’re into photography, an old friend from high school who’s now a fishing guide in Minsk, and a researcher from Peru that they’re collaborating with. There are many other conversations going on, but they’re only tuning in to the ones that interest them.

This is the power of Twitter. It lets you connect with people who’re talking about the things you’re interested in. It’s also in very short bites – max 140 characters – so the conversation can’t get hijacked by the bore from the 3rd floor. And if it does, you can simply stop listening to him.

Some real-life examples of how I use twitter: I follow people who “tweet” about the latest educational technology. I follow a research librarian who asks for questions when she’s on the desk (thanks ailie!). And I asked the twitterverse for ideas for a web 2.0 presentation, and got some excellent suggestions. Alex Courosa recently used twitter “live” in class to ask for thoughts on online bullying – it was a real eye-opener to his students that so many people are out there; and demonstrated to them that the web really is a public place.

As with any group, it’s good to find a friend to introduce you. But if you don’t know anyone, search for terms you’re interested in – ‘molecular biology’ for example – to find people who are talking about that. Check out their posts, and if they seem to be saying interesting stuff, follow them. And check out the people that they follow, too (look for the photos on the right hand side of the page). If you’re into education technology, you could check out my network at www.twitter.com/onekim.

It pays to follow a bunch of people – those “in the know” suggest about 150. Less than that, you don’t get as good information, apparently. I’m happy with my current group of 65, though.

Twitter’s not a place for drawn-out conversations: it’s about small bites of information, and brief public exchanges. Don’t use it as an instant messenger – that’s what MSN is for. Share stuff that will be of interest to the people you’re following. And, above all, use it as a tool to connect with people in your field.

There are several firefox extensions you can use instead of twitter’s website, but the website works fine too. There’s some migration to similar tools in plurk, friendfeed and
facebook at the moment, because twitter’s getting big, fast, and having trouble coping. But I think twitter’s still the place to start – for now, it’s still the leader of the pack.

As always, to learn more, google “twitter”.

Enjoy!